Repairing a P4400 Kill A Watt meter (aka 1800-Watt meter)

Recognize this thing? It measures your power usage and is somehow always more expensive than you expect. I definitely blew a fuse or something in mine drawing a lot of power - time to fix it!

I learn after the fact that this is only designed to handle 15 amps, which at 120 volts is 1800 watts! That's a lot of watts.

Anyways, let's take it apart! At first glance it looks like something shorted on the male plug side of the board, but it turns out that part is fine. Seems like quite a lot of solder, but

I find the fuse, and unfortunately it isn't replaceable. Using a multimeter, I see that there is no current across the fuse. Time to take it off!

So how do we add a new fuse? It turns out there are two really handy test contacts that are perfect for soldering! I have a spare car fuse from a previous project so I can use that.

And that's it! I'm barely able to fit the fuse in, but with a little poking and prodding I'm able to jam it all in there. I plug it in and it works! Hooray!

Hopefully this helps you repair your kill-a-watt meter if it breaks :)